Quotes to inspire and reflect

The need to find meaning . . . is as real as the need for trust and for love, for relations with other human beings.

I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.

To those who have given up on love, I say, ‘trust life a little bit.’

All the windows of my heart I open to the day.

Who could refrain that had a heart to love and in that heart courage to make love known?

Life was meant to be lived, and curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.

Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted.

Non-violence, which is the quality of the heart, cannot come by an appeal to the brain.

When choosing between two evils, I always like to try the one I've never tried before.

Writing is the only profession where no one considers you ridiculous if you earn no money.

We ought never to allow ourselves to be persuaded of the truth of anything unless on the evidence of our own reason.

If I had to live my life again, I'd make the same mistakes, only sooner.

A wise man, recognizing that the world is but an illusion, does not act as if it is real, so he escapes the suffering.

And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh.

A sacred thing is timely silence, and better than any speech.

Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit.

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.

I cannot say whether things will get better if we change; what I can say is they must change if they are to get better.

It is much easier to be a hero than a gentleman.

Be brave. Take risks. Nothing can substitute experience.

Politeness is to human nature what warmth is to wax.

The manner in which it is given is worth more than the gift.

It is a great mistake for men to give up paying compliments, for when they give up saying what is charming, they give up thinking what is charming.

Nothing prevents us from being natural so much as the desire to appear so.

The truly free man is he who knows how to decline a dinner invitation without giving an excuse.

Life is not so short but that there is always time for courtesy.

Manners are the happy way of doing things.

Never fear spoiling children by making them too happy. Happiness is the atmosphere in which all good affections grow.

I have found that the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want, and then advise them to do it.

What a father says to his children is not heard by the world; but it will be heard by posterity.

Kids are always the only future the human race has.

And that’s what parents were created for.

Ask your child what he wants for dinner only if he’s buying.

Oh, what a tangled web do parents weave when they think that their children are naive.

When I approach a child, he inspires in me two sentiments: tenderness for what he is, and respect for what he may become.

If children grew up according to early indications, we should have nothing but geniuses.

Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man.

Children are innocent and love justice, while most adults are wicked and prefer mercy.

I don’t know who my grandfather was. I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be.

I have often thought what a melancholy world this would be without children—and what an inhuman world, without the aged.

Mothers are the most instinctive philosophers.

The thorn from the bush one has planted, nourished and pruned, pricks most deeply and draws more blood.

He that has no fools, knaves nor beggars in his family was begot by a flash of lightning.

There is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his.

Heredity is what sets the parents of a teenager wondering about each other.

No matter how many communes anybody invents, the family always creeps back.

Marriage should, I think, always be a little hard and new and strange. It should be breaking your shell and going into another world, and a bigger one.

Marriage is like twirling a baton, turning handsprings or eating with chopsticks. It looks easy until you try it.